Myanmar 2017:
The Rohingya Crisis
“The world’s most persecuted minority” are the selected words to describe the Rohingya people. They are mostly a Muslim ethnic group who have been living in Myanmar for centuries. Families are being ripped apart, children are losing their parents and many others are losing loved ones as the Rohingya crisis, today, escalates.
Throughout Myanmar’s history, especially since the 1970s, the Rohingya people have been subjected to widespread persecution by Myanmar’s government. In 2017, due to the systemic and widespread attacks against them, the Rohingya are fleeing to the borders of neighboring countries like Bangladesh, India, Malaysia etc. Violence between militants and government forces broke out in the northern Rakhine state in August 2017, according to BBC news . In response to the militant attack, Buddhist militia launched an operation which killed at least 1,000 people and over 300,000 people were forced to flee their homes.
According to the UN News Centre , the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report in which countless refugees have come forward to tell their stories of the horrific gang rape, mass killings and brutal
beatings they have witnessed or experienced under the Myanmar government. The widespread violence targeting the Rohingya is also seen in satellite images showing Rohingya villages burning. Refugees are claiming that the Myanmar military is behind the widespread violence and also behind the sexual abuse that more than half the women interviewed have faced.
The Rohingya people have risked their lives trying to get to neighboring countries by boat or foot. According to Al Jazeera Journalist Andrew Stanbridge, many Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar are still displaced after ethnic clashes drove them from their homes. The most recent escalation in violence is in response to the insurgent’s fresh wave of violence. But the entire Rohingya people are being subjected to widespread violence because militant groups are retaliating in the Rakhine state. The Myanmar government is standing firmly behind their claim to fight the terrorists and is denying the claims of their army burning down villages. In September 2017, UN reported that their aid agencies are being blocked from delivering supplies like food, water and medicine to the thousands of civilians in the Rakhine state according to The Guardian. The Rohingya that have already fled are living in makeshift camps in Bangladesh while the majority remained unregistered and displaced. There are women, children, the elderly and thousands of others who are being forced out of their homes while being exposed to traumatizing violent events and conditions. Many people in countries around the world aren’t aware of the crisis itself or the cruel and heinous events these people have experienced and witnessed. We have seen this happen in history but the prevailing question is whether we will let history repeat itself time after time or will we fight against this?